R.A.L.P.H. (Robotic Automated LEGO Parts Hauler)

Introducing R.A.L.P.H.!  The Robotic Automated LEGO Parts Hauler.

So you need some 2x6 red plates for that new car MOC you're building but they're just too far out of reach?

Using only Voice Commands, R.A.L.P.H. will get those parts out of storage and bring them right to you!

After your device receives the voice command, a database program interprets the phrase and determines if the part is valid and selects the appropriate bin (if you have that part in stock). The robot rides along a track to the storage bin, stopping when the color sensor sees the correct "stop" color. Next, the robot's large motor extends the scissor lift vertically until the color sensor sees the color that corresponds to the correct row of parts. Next the robot moves horizontally to line up with the correct column of the part bin. The extraction arm pulls the bin onto the platform, where a button-sensor wall slides over to hold the parts snug (and allows for varying bin sizes). Once the bin is fully extracted, the lift descends and the robot rides along the track back to your working station!

Thanks for checking R.A.L.P.H. out!

WARNING: Tech stuff ahead!

I created the database using PostgreSQL, used Python to interface with the EV3, used Speechnotes online voice-to-text to capture the command and PowerShell to push the command into the database.

As shown in pics 3 and 4 I actually wrote a working algorithm for parsing the voice command.  It can handle plates, tiles, bricks, Technic bricks and corner bricks as of now.

If the program finds a valid part (pic 3), the LEGO Part Number will populate and it will then create a text file with the bin location as Row/Column (ex:  5, 3). These two numbers are sent to the EV3 app that tells it what color the lift should raise to, and how far to traverse laterally.  If it fails, we get the results shown in pic 4.

I've included a snippet of the color parsing with pic 5.